Raphael Zingg

Raphael Zingg studied law at the University of Fribourg (BLaw), Paris II (Licence en Droit), and Zurich (MLaw). After completing his legal internship as Junior Associate at Lenz & Staehelin, he earned his PhD with his dissertation on the topic "Fostering Innovation in Emerging Technologies" (Dr. Sc. ETH Zürich). He was an Assistant Professor at Waseda University in Tokyo and has worked as a visiting scholar at a number of foreign institutions, notably the University of California in Berkeley, the University of Hong Kong, the Singapore Management University, and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich. 

He joined IPrime in 2021 and advises our clients on domestic and cross-boarder patent litigation, including pre-trial strategies, in particular in the field of medical devices, software, and manufacturing. He further assists clients in intellectual property contract negotiations and drafting as well as in M&A IP due diligence and transactions.

Raphael Zingg regularly teaches and speaks at universities in Europe, the US, and Asia as well as at institutions such as the USPTO, WIPO, and IPI. He currently lectures on life science law and regulation at ETH Zurich and at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He further serves as mentor for start-up competition >>venture>>.

Career and education

2024 Partner at IPrime

2023 Lecturer at Nanjing University of Science and Technology

2022 Lecturer at ETH Zurich and Fribourg University

2021 Attorney-at-law at IPrime Legal AG, Swiss bar exam

2020 Guest professor and lecturer at UC Berkeley, Singapore Management University and University of Hong Kong

2019 ETH Zürich, Dr. sc. ETH Zurich 

2018 Assistant professor at Waseda University, Tokyo 

2017 Guest reseacher at UC Berkeley and Max Planck Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. 

2015 Junior Associate at Lenz & Staehelin, Zurich

2014 University of Zurich, MLaw  

2014 Université Panthéon-Assas, Licence en Droit privé 

2012 University of Fribourg, BLaw  

Publications

•  “The copyrightability of works of applied art in China – Case Note of Guiding Case No. 157 by the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China”, GRUR International 72(12), 1142 ff. (2023) (with R. Rentsch).
• "Answering a challenging question: is the SPC Regulation still fit for purpose in a changed pharmaceutical industry?” (book review), Journal of Intellectual Property Law Practice, jpad050 (2023).
• “AIPPI Q284 – Doctrine of equivalents, Report of the Swiss Group”,sic! Zeitschrift für Immaterialgüter-, Informations- und Wettbewerbsrecht (2023) (with A. Carreira et al.)
• “Das Einheitspatentsystem – Erste praktische Auswirkungen für die Schweiz” (The unified patent system – First implications for Switzerland), KMU-Magazin 07/08, pp. 64-68 (2023) (with J. Künsch).
• Chapters § 50 “Klage wegen Patentverletzung” and § 51 “Vorsorgliche Massnahmen bei Patentverletzung” (§ 50 Patent infringement lawsuit and § 51 Preliminary injunction for patent infringement), Kommentierte Musterklagen zum Gesellschaftsrecht und zum Geistigen Eigentum,edited by W. Fischer, F. Theus Simoni and D. Gessler (Schulthess), vol. 1, 2nd edition, pp. 341-370 (2022) (with R. Rentsch and R. Banchik).
• "Ausschluss von der Patentierung für medizinische Verfahren: Herausforderungen und Umgehungspotential in der Nanorobotik" (Exclusion of medical methods from patent protection: Challenges and bypasses in the nanorobotics), sic! – Zeitschrift für Immaterialgüter-, Informations- und Wettbewerbsrecht 3, pp. 105-112 (2022) (with M. Fischer)
• "Innovating under Uncertainty: The Patent-Eligibility of Artificial Intelligence after Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International", Research in Law and Economics 30, pp. 59-81 (2022) (with R.Whalen).
•  “Refuges, Safe Havens, and the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage”,Safeguarding Cultural Property and the 1954 Hague Convention: All possible steps, edited by E. Cunliffe and P. Fox (Boydell & Brewer), pp. 79-96 (2022) (with N.Paumgartner).
• “The Association of Attending Physicians’ Publications and Patients’ Readmission Rates: Evidence from Tertiary Hospitals in China Using a Retrospective Data Analysis” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(15), 9760 (2022) (with Shen, Lian, Li, Wu and Yang).
• "AIPPI Q280 – Patentability of Diagnostic Methods, Report of the Swiss Group”, sic! Zeitschrift für Immaterialgüter-, Informations- und Wettbewerbsrecht 10, pp. 475-478 (2022) (with J. Balter et al.)
• "Foundational Patents in Artificial Intelligence", book chapter in Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property, edited by R. Hilty, J.-A. Lee, and K.-C. Liu (Oxford University Press), pp. 75-98 (2021).
• "Data Portability in a Data-Driven World", book chapter in Artificial Intelligence and International Economic Law – Disruption, Regulation and Reconfiguration, edited by S.-Y. Peng and C.-F. Lin (Cambridge University Press), pp. 215-234 (2021) (with F. Zufall). 
• "Protection Heterogeneity in a Harmonized European Patent System", European Journal of Law and Economics 50, pp. 87–131 (2020) (with E. Elsner).
• “Patent Examiners and the Citation Bias in Innovation”, WIAS Research Bulletin, Discussion Paper No. 20 (2020) (with M. Shen).
• "The Declining Impact of the US National Institutes of Health on Cancer Patenting", Nature Biotechnology 37, pp. 722–723 (2019).
• "The Convergence of Nanomedicine", WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology, e1569 (2019) (with M. Fischer).
• "The Rise of Public-Private Collaboration in Nanotechnology", Nano Today 25, pp. 7-9 (2019) (with M. Fischer).
• "The Nanotechnology Patent Thicket Revisited", Journal of Nanoparticle Research 20(10), pp. 267-272 (2018) (with M. Fischer).
• "The Rise of Safe Havens for Threatened Cultural Heritage", International Journal of Cultural Property 25(3), pp. 323-346 (2018) (with N. Paumgartner).
• "Die Schweiz als erster Safe Haven für Kulturgüter" (Switzerland as first Safe Haven for Cultural Goods), Aktuelle Juristische Praxis 10, pp. 1375-83 (2014) (with N. Paumgartner).